for ever hang thy dreamy spell, round mountain star and heather bell' 3'' cdr on ruralfaune (2006) sold out reviews superbe séance de spiritisme musical menée par le duo français de jacob garet et florian tositti (the reggaee). une guitare électrique pickée et une flute font progressivement monter la tension, au-dessus d'une boucle aigüe - montée coupée dans son élan, puis reprise lentement autour de quelques nouvelles bribes de guitare, lentement superposées, enveloppées autour d'un drone et de quelques cuivres lointains... en 20 minutes, le duo installe une ambiance unique, jouant sur la progression, les couches sonores discrètement retravaillées, d'une luminosité qu'une voix un peu "messe noire" vient rendre délicieusement équivoque. même en creusant un peu, il est difficile de trouver des homologues à cet exercice qui peut paraître, bien que réussi, peu original à première écoute. trop tendu et structuré pour du thuja, trop aéré pour the lost domain, trop mystique pour du death chants... alors bien sûr, le voyage sera bien meilleur si on se laisse porter par cette guitare familière, comme une main amie dans un monde étrange, si on joue le jeu d'une musique assez mystique, plutôt que d'analyser un son parfois peut-être trop facilement analysable. constantin d - millefeuille having lifted the title of this majestic 3" CD-R from anne brontë's poem "memory," this newly formed French duo aim to recreate the innocence of childhood as filtered through the human mind's imperfect memory. florian tositti (the reggaee) and jacob garet (undisputed master of the 'magick skull of noise,' whatever that may be) have created the perfect 21-minute prescription for losing touch with the present and rediscovering the purity of unsullied youth. multiple looped guitar patterns are interwoven and laid upon a blanket of drone, while a flute dances carelessly overhead. frequent crescendos are followed by the development of new musical ideas, proving that GBCM (a fitting acronym, no?) are adept at creating engaging long form soundscapes. this is indeed another stunning release for the ruralfaune label, an imprint that continues to explore fresh terrain in the global psychedelic underground. cheers to them for discovering the spellbinding sounds of GBCM. 8/10. bryon hayes - foxy digitalis wow, is that a mouthful. the band is called ghosts brames of the cerf's magickal and the record's called for every hang thy dreamy spell, round mountain star and heather bell. WTF? nothing there could possibly prepare you for he dreamy drift contained within. GBOTCM is another project of french outfit the reggaee, who have teamed up with some like minded musical alchemists for a late night ritual of simple guitar strum and strange disembodied percussion. minor key buzz and twang, stretched out over a murky low end throb, with bits of fluttery flute, a bit of dark and drifting campfire forestfolk, ominous and melancholy, laid back and shadow lit. eventually, this flickering folks is joined by soft swells of subterranean drone and brief burbles of spacey FX, adding to the dreamy drift but never disrupting the tranquil ambience. aquarius 'quotidian furtivian' cdr on 267 lattajjaa (2006) sold out reviews : ghosts brâmes of the cerf is the french duo of jacob garet and florian tositti (of the reggaee) and their music often feels like an alienated branch that might have grown apart from the jewelled antler collective. they have already released one 3" cdr on ruralfaune (as ghosts brâmes of the cerf's magickal, mind you!) and their next full-length is due out soon on foxglove. from the very first seconds, i was hooked by the atmosphere that the duo is able to conjure up with so little. first, there is a clearly audible hiss which gives the acoustic space a certain density. The sound has a somewhat lo-fi quality as well. soon, a few percussion instruments enter the picture while remaining in the background; then, some very subtle gong and cymbal work starts to struggle with the soft hissing noise as lower-frequency sounds gradually spin their webs around the listener. that first track "atonal compass" gives us the tone. an idea of the colours the duo is going to explore and there is much more to ghost brâmes than just a simple nod to thuja or amm, for that matter. what I found really striking, for instance, is the sense of freedom that exudes from every sound-gesture made by the duo. consequently, each element may contribute to the direction of a piece, whether it is a faint, continuous clatter or a fragile loop of whistle-drone. In my opinion, this approach is not unlike the one that has been perfected by fursaxa over the years. not only does the music display a highly hypnotic quality, but it is able to find its own form as more and more elements are carefully added/ subtracted to its overall sound. thus, from the second track onwards (the aptly-named "the air is music"), the duo begins what can be rightfully termed a "minimal" epic as there's an (almost) uninterrupted flow of music until the very end (although some tracks have been distinguished to delimitate specific sections). on the third track, the distant whistling rapidly gives way to a delicate duo of electric guitars which complement each other in a very sparse way - while one of them keeps on repeating two notes (which reminded me of the music of gart & seekatze), some discreet metallic overtones are meticulously extracted from the other one. as we're getting to the fourth track (there are 7 tracks overall), we realize that a richly-textured drone has been sculpted out before our ears without our having even noticed. this has been made possible through the aforementioned layering of sounds, but a variety of effects has also been applied with great impact to instruments such as the theremin, a harmonica or even a flute. Then, as one of the guitars decides to delineate a new melodic line, this floating, harmonium-like drone is quickly assaulted from all sides by a series of rather abstract noises which become slightly more prominent on tracks 4 and 5. far from saturating the space with a surge of ascending noise on the overused tension/ release model, the fifth track unravels new (melodic) colours that had previously been hidden from within the fabric of the piece(s). by the time the music starts to fade out (track 6), it has reached such a level of restrained intensity that its dense, yet monolithic nature may make you feel a little dizzy once it actually comes to an end! like the first introductory piece, the last track is (somewhat) isolated from the rest and seems to try and bring the sounds back to earth (sort of). Here, an elusive melody played on a flute (with reverbs) is accompanied by a soft, yet constant hitting of cymbals and the distant pounding of other percussive instruments. It all ends in a hiss - with the exact same sound that actually opened the cdr. wow. once the music stops, there is no doubt that you've been taken on one hell of a ride - the performance/gestures being the true guides here and this despite the fact that every section has been carefully laid out to form one continuous whole (the tracks were all recorded during different live sessions in July and August 2006). as usual, no words can truly make up for the actual music. yet, I hope I've been able to catch your attention a little and make you want to check out this fantastic duo for yourself. You won't regret it as this is totally captivating from beginning to end. Finally, a special mention should be made to the beautiful hand-painted work that adorns the sleeve and which perfectly fits the music of ghost brâmes. 8/10" francois hubert - foxy digitalis 'eagle arpegi' cdr florian tositti and jacob garret's ghost brames brings a handful of magic mushrooms to the party. it is woozy music, as patterned as an acid high. simultaneously breaking apart and sewing itself back together again, "eagle arpegi" encapsulates the infinitism of the universe. slowly, the leviathan raises its head and sinks in its teeth, without alarming its prey. this is the true measure of great music. your blood will boil and your skull crack at its base, but in the end you're better for it. because really, how can you actually free your mind when it's trapped inside a bony prison? 100 copies to foxglove reviews ghost brâmes (sometimes of the cerfs or cerf's magickal) which is comprised of florian tositti (a.k.a. the reggaee) and jacob garett. the guys had a couple of nice releases last year on ruralfaune and 267 lattajjaa, but this is the first for the double oh seven. eagle arpegi, is a single 39 minute ditty. it's also a single 39 minute ditty of the best kind, one that is constantly, though logically, moving forward. the two guys are busy at work through the whole track, with looped keyboard drone, percussive clatter, muted guitar plucks, occasional bits of toy flute, choirboy voices (or maybe a bowed something?), rattling and chiming, and a few things that i can't really identify or verbally approximate. i'm assuming because of its length, the track was probably recorded live which is quite impressive, and it was probably improvised too which is even more impressive. i've never really noticed it until now but these guys occupy a similar sonic space as the (VxPxC) dudes, especially around the 24 minute mark. the drone becomes a bit more subdued and some really great guitar/wooden flute interplay unfolds. it's a beautiful stretch of time, the guitar is all jittery but pensive, jammin' on a repetitive melody. the flute is an MVP contender, with some really wistful but insistent wind blowing through the track—emerging just long enough to make its point and then dropping back into the ether. scattered but rhythmic percussion, electronic twinkling and rumbling, and slurred vocal groans augment the existing sonics splendidly; taking the track into slightly more shadowy, blurred territory. this thing is not only a sonic mindfeast but a journey too! the track slowly dwindles after the crest, smeared by guitar feedback and synthery. awesome. i admit, I'm often wary of 40 minute tracks but this one really hits the mark. recommended, and if you're into 40 minutes tracks than i'd rate this essential. auxiliary out 'STATIC AERO' forest-temple worship and destruction from angers, france. conjures a hand drawn world in my head. features florian tositti (the reggaee, capricorn wings, xochipilli, the cosmic mandoliners) and jacob garet. 4 songs of gradually changing storms of fantasy hypnotism, beamed from the earth beneath branch shadow. (timothy hurley - leaf trail) ghost brames are french duo florian tositti (also the reggaee) and jacob garret. this "goes" well with the new bonecloud leaf trail cdr, being another amorphous haze of sound - high wire drones, splashes of ringing metal and deep vocal oms that build into a ringing cacophony of tones, subtle harmonies and wind-tunnel atmospherics. boa melody bar from the leaf trail Label, run by the bonecloud / changeling folks, comes this brand new disc from the very strangely named French duo Ghost Brames Of The Cerf. Clues to the sound of Ghost Brames can be found in the fact that A. it's on Leaf Trail and that B. one half of the duo also does time in like minded sonic countrymen The Reggaee. so yeah, we're talking, looooong tracks of super abstract drones, and disembodied free folk weirdness, and Ghost Brames give it their own spin, haunting similar sonic landscapes as Avarus and other Finnish folkies, as well as the abstract drift of their Leaf Trail label bosses. four tracks, all 10 minutes plus, the first, super minimal, distant melodies drifting in and out of earshot, in the foreground a hushed looped machine-like rhythm and a wheezing organ, but all of the various parts are whispered, the tape hiss nearly loud enough to overtake the music. Lovely but so so subtle and so abstract it could almost fade into nothingness at any moment. The second track is also minimal, but much more present, a tangle of keening high end, not sure if they're horns or strings or synths, but they glimmer and shimmer, like streaks of feedback, while below, detuned guitars strum and a non-rhythm is plonked out on wood blocks and cardboard boxes. That track segues directly into the third, where the drifting upper register smears are quickly overtaken by a wash of staticky thrum, smeared and blurred but fuzzy and dense, beneath it a strange sing song vocal surfaces, the track eventually building to an almost operatic climax. the final track, takes the operatic frenzy of track three, and slathers it with buzzing guitar and fuzzed out loops, the vocals transformed into jagged melodic fragments beneath the almost doom like stasis of distorted guitar whir. quite cool. packaged in oversized full color sleeves, with color printed inserts. aquarius i noticed that it's been much too long since nate rulli's abandon ship label has graced these pages, so I am here to rectify the situation. Here we have the foreign chapter of the second to last batch on abandon ship, tapes by france's capricorn wings and australia's 6majik9. capricorn wings is the "more acoustic" alter ego of the french duo ghost brâmes. It really doesn't sound all that acoustic, which I'm actually digging. This hour long tape is a menagerie of accordion, guitars, cymbals, melodica, tape, organ, microphones and 7" vinyl. The first of two side long tracks is "Black Words". There is a dense, undulating swirl/rumble that is pretty much impossible to sonically decode. You can hear guitars, organ at first and then cymbals jamming over top of the audio jumble. Despite its mellow pace, and the track being nearly 30 minutes in length, it goes by pretty quick. While it's usually the guitar or cymbals leading the track, I find all the stuff going on lower in the mix to be the most interesting. It morphs so subtly throughout the track, that it's a rare occasion that you notice it changing. Towards the end there is some totally excellent tambourine/rattle playing that puts the whole thing over the top for me. There are also sweet bassy jellybone organ type sounds as the fellas begin to break down their sound construction. The guitar and organ come back along with an odd swooshing loop for a pretty, extended comedown. "green woods" takes up the span of the second side of the cool green tape. It is a more straightforward, composed piece, with most of the action taking place in the left channel for some reason. There are a couple loops of gleaming organ, delicate guitar accompaniment and tambourine percussion. Like the previous track, there are subtle shifts in sound as the duo slowly adds melodica to the party. At some point a stuttering feedback drone type sound emerges, it sounds like it might be a loop but I'm not sure. It overwhelms the proceedings a bit, unfortunately. It drops out eventually though revealing a very nice bit of interplay between acoustic guitar and something else I can't put by finger on. The organ (or maybe its accordion) comes back with beautiful sustained tones amidst strange multi-instrument clatter as the track floats away. Overall, the side has some really great moments but doesn't have the depth of sound that made the first so great. still a nice piece though. drew dale/auxiliary out capricorn wings is a duo that could very easily be lumped into the psych-folk genre and said to be more of the same, but there is some really creative music being made by these two musicians. There is an obvious drone/raga influence that permeates most of side A and a knack for using alternate sources for sounds such as vinyl and microphone feedback. The development of this side of the tape is very well paced and demonstrates a musical patience that is pretty uncommon in western music. the second side of this tape is much more mystical sounding, and gets to even be a little ominous. The organ textures are extremely effective and add an interesting element to the mechanical sounding drone that dominates the mix as the piece develops. Overall this tape is pretty well recorded and contains some really good material. Definitely worth checking these guys out. rob funkhouser/hawaiian winter